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NBA final: Miami Heat’s Big Three faces talk of failure if they lose to San Antonio Spurs

Despite three NBA final appearances in the three years since they came together, Heat could hear more rumbles of a breakup because of initial promises made.

Miami Heat's LeBron James (left), Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh (right) share a laugh on the bench as their team beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 2 of their NBA Finals basketball playoff in Miami, Florida June 9, 2013. (MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS)

MIAMI—In the haze of the smoke and to the roar of the frenzied crowd they sat there, the three new Kings of Miami, promising multiple championships — “not one, not two, not three . . .” as they were ready to take the NBA by storm.

They had fought convention to come together, taking less money than they could have to form some kind of super triumvirate that would dominate the league for years to come.

And everyone expected they would, there were predictions of multiple 70-win seasons and championship after championship after championship; the league sought to legislate against existence of such gathering of stars during a bitter and costly lockout.

But now LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — The Big Three, The Heatles, The Super Friends, whatever you want to call them — are in danger of failing to live up to their own expectations while at the same time bringing glee to the fans who’ve wanted them to fail from the start.

The team put together to win multiple championships heads home in danger of losing a second in three years, trailing the San Antonio Spurs 3-2 in the best-of-seven series and needing back-to-back wins for the first time in a dozen games to do it.

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“I have to come up big, for sure in Game 6,” said James after San Antonio’s 114-104 win in Game 5. “But I believe we all have to play at a high level in order to keep the series going.

“So me being one of the leaders of this team, I do put a lot of pressure on myself to force a Game 7, and I look forward to the challenge.”

But the challenge is deeper than just one game, perhaps.

The Heat have taken great pride in proving naysayers wrong since James and Bosh joined Wade in south Florida in July 2010.

They’ve spoken about having a target on their collective backs and of “blocking out the noise” as they’ve become more insular.

But losing this series after losing to the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 and beating the Oklahoma City Thunder last June may prove that as individually talented as each of the players is, it in no way guarantees success.

A loss will once again prompt talk to break up the group — Bosh would be logical one to leave, they would never trade James and Wade is so inextricably linked to the franchise’s history — and raise questions about the suitability of coach Erik Spoelstra.

If those three thought there was “noise” and “distractions” before, it will just get worse if they fail.

A Heat loss would send ripples across the league, too, because franchises already worried about a punitive tax system could look and legitimately say: “Hey, it didn’t work with James, Wade and Bosh, why should we risk it?”

But what the Heat can draw on, they say, is that history, that knowledge that so many want them to fail, that they need to stay together as a way of thumbing their noses at the rest of the league.

They’ve certainly had another practice doing it and remain very much to themselves.

“We’ve been through so many battles,” said Spoelstra. “And we’ve been through everything. The trust level is there now.

“We’ve been through enough losses. We’ve been through enough pain. Been through success that we’re able to manage each other much better than initially the first few weeks together.”

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